An Analysis Of The Causes Of Non-Attendance And Dropouts In The Bohner School, Olton, Texas

THE PROBLEM AND DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED With the emphasis being placed today on the needs for trained personnel in all areas# it has become increasingly important for educators to try to solve problems confronting the school as are related to attendance. The larger public school systems have put into action a visiting teacher program which proposes to help prevent non-attendance and to improve irregular attendance. However# rural schools very often# have no access to the visiting teacher program or to any other type of truancy prevention. They have had to seek other means to combat this problem. THE PROBLEM Statement of the Problem. The purposes of this study are (1) to explore the philosophy of# and factors involved in school attendance; (2) to ascertain the probable causes of non-attendance in the Bohner School# Olton, Texas; and (3) to use the findings to make recommendations for possible Improvement in attendance. The current study was undertaken in an effort to throw light upon the real reasons why pupils are absent from school. Particularly it sought to ascertain what could be done to gain a more complete understanding of fundamental causes for p^pi* absence in a particular school situation. Significance of the Study* The need for studying the causes of non-attendance and drop-outs was made evident by a constant increase of attendance problems in the Bohner School, Olton, Texas, to the extent that the possible future of financial appropriations for the school will be reduced. It may be said quite safely that school administrators and teachers are universally interested in the problems associated with non-attendance, and are much concerned with reducing them. The tax-payers are concerned in part because their money is being used to provide buildings, equipment, and teachers for the use of all students. Citizens are concerned also because the quality of the product of the school is Influenced by the extent to which students attend school regularly. It would seem that any successful attack upon the absence problem should start with an analysis of the cause of absence among a particular group of pupils. It may be assumed that If we know the cause of a condition we are able to place an intelligent attack to remove the condition. If pupils are absent because of health factors, an effort to reduce absence will take the direction of changing those health factors. Similarly, if pupils are absent because of shortcomings in the school program, better attendance will require that these shortcomings be changed. Previous studies associated with the preparation of this thesis, however, have stopped with an analysis based upon the reason given by pupils or parents. This still leaves unanswered the question of underlying fundamental causes. When a boy gives the reason for an absence as sickness and he plays a game of football the same day, one suspects at once that the reason given was not the real reason. Yet, his absence was real. If his absenteeism is to be eliminated, the real cause must be sought out

Expressionism for Painting Sports

This thesis is an attempt to show that the Expressionistic style of painting lends itself to the Sports figure. The action and dynamic movement of the athlete can be easily portrayed by the slashing strokes and boldly suggested forms of Expressionism. By painting in this style the feelings and emotions of an event may be sensed. Sometimes the form is obviously exaggerated to emphasize this emotional quality or mood. This paper discusses and illustrates the work of several sports artists who use Expressionism for their style of work. Leroy Neiman is probably the most famous of these, having worked for many companies including ABC\u27s Wide World of Sports in covering the Olympic Games. Robert Handville, Coby Whitmore, and Jim Jonson are all illustrators who have all at one time or another worked for Sports Illustrated magazine. Carl Shull presently an art professor at Eastern Illinois University has experience working with the athlete from a series of paintings he did for Eastern\u27s Physical Education Department in observance of the Diamond Jubilee Celebration in 1973. The last chapter of the thesis is devoted to a discussion and analysis of my sports paintings with some attention to technique, materials used, preparation of the working surface, and determining composition

CURIOSITIES OF STANDING IN TRADE SECRET LAW

Standing under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act – the right to pursue a misappropriation claim – is a vexing question when compared to patent, copyright, and trademark law. Instead of requiring ownership or license rights as a condition to sue, courts often find that mere possession of an asserted trade secret suffices for standing, even when the provenance of the information is murky. In some cases, courts even allow trade secret plaintiffs to claim intellectual property rights in the preferences and desires expressed to them by their customers in lawsuits designed to stop former employees from doing business with those same customers. Relaxed requirements for trade secret standing under the UTSA can weaken the showing needed to establish a valid trade secret. For example, a plaintiff with only mere possession may not always be able to account for the history of the information it possesses – but it would nonetheless be permitted to proceed even though the defendant cannot challenge whether reasonable security measures were always used to guard the information in the past. Dubious claims based on preferences expressed by customers could be transformed into intellectual property for the sole purpose of blocking an alternative supplier whom the very same customers may prefer. In the worst instances, loose standing rules centered on mere possession could encourage parties to claim rights over types of information to which trade secret law should never extend, such as workplace injury data and personal attributes of employees. This article explores how courts in trade secret cases have come to apply standing rules that are more permissive than those seen in other areas of intellectual property law. It concludes that some courts remain confused about whether trade secret claims are property rights or instead something closer to broader, looser restrictive covenants. This conceptual confusion results in questionable standing decisions inconsistent with the statutory elements of a trade secret claim and, more broadly, the goals of intellectual property law. Much of the conundrum results from a poorly-reasoned 2001 Fourth Circuit decision on trade secret standing. It offered a patina of suspect theory regarding what it styled the “inherent nature” of trade secret law and undercut a property-centered conception of trade secret law, and proposed that mere possession could suffice to assert a claim. Many courts addressing state law trade secret disputes in the last two decades have followed this decision, sometimes expressly adopting its vision of trade secret law as a relational doctrine rather than an intellectual property doctrine. This is the first comprehensive article on trade secret standing, and the first to probe the dangers posed when requirements for trade secret standing are relaxed. It will isolate the philosophy behind questionable rulings which deviate from the property-centered requirements of the UTSA. This article will also explore whether a mere-possession rule of trade secret standing undermines the requirement that a plaintiff prove that reasonable security measures were used to safeguard the information. We will explore whether allowing trade secret claims in the preferences and desires expressed by customers should be analyzed as a question of standing to best protect departing employees as well as robust market competition. The article will question whether the problematic conception of trade secret law seen in many standing cases could open the door to nontraditional trade secret claims which threaten important public policy interests. In the end, we will conclude with solutions that courts can effect without legislative change

The Binding of 2-Acetylnaphthalene to Beta-Cyclodextrin Polymers Studied by Fluorescence Quenching

Cyclodextrin (CD) molecules can form inclusion complexes with many different types of organics due to the hydrophobic environment of the CD internal cavity. The flurophore-2-acetylnapthalene (2-AN) has a high flourescence intensity in polar solvents such as water. Therefore, its fluorescence is quenched when it forms a complex with a CD molecule and is contained in the non-polar cavity. By measuring the change in flourescence intensity in the presence of CD, we can calculate the binding constant for CD:2-AN complex formation

Graves, John

Co. L. 370th Inf.https://dh.howard.edu/prom_members/1032/thumbnail.jp

Questioning the Employee Non-solicitation Covenant

Based on an in-depth review of the dubious justifications courts have offered when enforcing co-worker non-solicitation covenants, this Article proposes that courts have too strongly favored employers against their former employees in such disputes. A co-worker non-solicitation covenant is a contract term that prohibits a departing employee, for some period of time, from inviting his or her former co-workers to join him or her at a new job—or from encouraging a former co-worker to leave the company for any other reason. Some are worded so broadly that one could breach the contract by advising a colleague to leave a hostile or harassing workplace, or to seek higher pay. These covenants are ubiquitous in private sector employment agreements, at all income levels and occupations. They are frequently litigated, often alongside trade secret misappropriation claims. Courts often find violations based on communications with former co-workers. Despite that ubiquity, co-worker non-solicitation covenants receive scant attention. Court rulings see little in the way of sustained analysis. Notwithstanding the wave of academic and legislative attention paid to employee non-competition covenants in recent years, the co-worker non-solicitation clause remains an afterthought. This should change. Courts and commentators have overlooked how employers use co-worker non-solicitation covenants as a means to avoid giving employees raises or promotions, and to avoid improving workplace conditions. Employers’ litigation arguments that such covenants protect trade secrets, protect a company’s goodwill with its customers, or protect a supposedly “stable” workforce do not withstand critical scrutiny. These covenants operate first and foremost as salary suppression devices, not as an adjunct to trade secret law. To understand how these covenants came to exist, this Article explores the long history of restrictions on hiring employees. Rather than a contract term that arose in response to contemporary workplace needs, the co-worker non-solicitation covenant is instead an anachronistic remnant of the paternalistic workspaces of late medieval England and otherwise forgotten labor control mechanisms from long ago. Next, this Article offers the first comprehensive review of nationwide case law in this area, critiquing four common arguments employers offer for enforceability. Then, building on the insights of a small number of courts that have pushed back against such justifications, this Article proposes that courts reframe their adjudication of co-worker non-solicitation covenants. Courts should reject efforts to view these covenants as a category of trade secret law, and should reject other threadbare justifications. They should instead ask why employees want to leave the company, including whether better pay was available elsewhere, and they should examine the company’s attrition rates. By viewing disputes from the employee’s perspective and not just the employer’s perspective, and by considering broader empirical evidence of workplace conditions, courts can inject overdue skepticism

SB 206553, a putative 5-HT2C inverse agonist, attenuates methamphetamine-seeking in rats

BACKGROUND: Methamphetamine (meth) dependence presents a substantial socioeconomic burden. Despite the need, there is no FDA-approved pharmacotherapy for psychostimulant dependence. We consider 5-HT(2C) receptors as viable therapeutic targets. We recently revealed that the atypical antidepressant, mirtazapine, attenuates meth-seeking in a rodent model of human substance abuse. Mirtazapine historically has been considered to be an antagonist at 5-HT(2C) receptors, but more recently shown to exhibit inverse agonism at constitutively active 5-HT(2C) receptors. To help distinguish the roles for antagonism vs. inverse agonism, here we explored the ability of a more selective 5-HT(2C) inverse agonist, SB 206553 to attenuate meth-seeking behavior, and compared its effects to those obtained with 5-HT(2C) antagonists, SDZ Ser 082 and SB 242084. To do so, rats were trained to self-administer meth and tested for seeking-like behavior in cue reactivity sessions consisting of contingently presenting meth-associated cues without meth reinforcement. We also explored motor function to determine the influence of SB 206553 and SDZ Ser 082 on motor activity in the presence and absence of meth. RESULTS: Like mirtazapine, pretreatment with SB 206553 (1.0, 5.0, and 10.0 mg/kg), attenuated meth-seeking. In contrast, the antagonists, SDZ Ser 082 (0.1, 0.3, and 1.0 mg/kg) and SB 242084 (3.0 mg/kg) had no effect on cue reactivity (CR). SB 242084 (3.0 mg/kg) failed to attenuate the effects of 5.0 and 10 mg/kg SB 206553 on CR. Motor function was largely unaltered by the 5-HT(2C) ligands; however, SB 206553, at the highest dose tested (10.0 mg/kg), attenuated meth-induced rearing behavior. CONCLUSIONS: The lack of effect by 5-HT(2C) antagonists suggests that meth-seeking and meth-evoked motor activity are independent of endogenous 5-HT acting at 5-HT(2C) receptors. While SB 206553 dramatically impacted meth-evoked behaviors it is unclear whether the observed effects were 5-HT(2C) receptor mediated. Thus, SB 206553 deserves further attention in the study of psychostimulant abuse disorders

Fibroblast Apoptosis Induced by Porphyromonas Gingivalis is Stimulated by a Gingipain and Caspase-Independent Pathway that Involves Apoptosis-Inducing Factor

Porphyromonas gingivalis is an oral bacterium that causes pathology in a number of dental infections that are associated with increased fibroblast cell death. Studies presented here demonstrated that P. gingivalis stimulates cell death by apoptosis rather than necrosis. Unlike previous studies apoptosis was induced independent of proteolytic activity and was also independent of caspase activity because a pan-caspase inhibitor, Z-VAD-fmk, had little effect. Moreover, P. gingivalis downregulated caspase-3 mRNA levels and caspase-3 activity. The consequence of this downregulation was a significant reduction in tumour necrosis factor-α-induced apoptosis, which is caspase-3-dependent. Immunofluorescence and immunoblot analysis revealed P. gingivalis-induced translocation of apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. siRNA studies were undertaken and demonstrated that P. gingivalis stimulated cell death was significantly reduced when AIF was silenced (P \u3c 0.05). Treatment of human gingival fibroblasts with H-89, a protein kinase A inhibitor that blocks AIF activation also reduced P. gingivalis-induced apoptosis (P \u3c 0.05). These results indicate that P. gingivalis causes fibroblast apoptosis through a pathway that involves protein kinase A and AIF, is not dependent upon bacterial proteolytic activity and is also independent of the classic apoptotic pathways involving caspase-3